Facebook’s friend suggestion algorithm is complex and constantly evolving. In short, yes – Facebook does use profile views as one of the many signals that feed into which friends get suggested to you.
How Does Facebook Suggest Friends?
Facebook considers hundreds of signals when making friend recommendations. Some of the main factors include:
- Mutual friends
- Friends of friends
- Educational and workplace networks
- Location
- Groups and Pages liked
- Posts and photos interacted with
- Profile views
So profile views alone do not determine friend suggestions, but they are part of the mix. If someone views your profile, they may start getting suggested in your “People You May Know” box soon after.
Why Would Profile Views Influence Suggestions?
It makes sense that Facebook would factor profile views into the algorithm. Viewing someone’s profile generally indicates some level of interest or connection. Here are some examples of when profile views could trigger friend suggestions:
- An old classmate looks up your profile to see what you’ve been up to lately. The algorithm picks up on your shared education history and starts suggesting you connect.
- A friend-of-a-friend views your profile to learn more about you after hearing about you in conversation. The algorithm sees you have extended network connections in common.
- A coworker at a company you recently left looks you up out of curiosity. The algorithm detects you worked at the same place and thinks you might want to stay in touch.
- Someone views your profile repeatedly over a short period of time. This signals heightened interest to the algorithm.
In all these cases, the profile views provide additional signals that you and the viewer might know each other or share common connections. By factoring profile views into the mix, Facebook’s friend recommendation algorithm aims to show you the people you are most likely to know or want to connect with.
How to See Who’s Viewing Your Profile
Wondering who’s been looking at your profile? Unfortunately Facebook does not have a direct way to see who views your profile. The best you can do is look at your “People You May Know” suggestions and infer that some of those people likely looked at your profile recently. Here are some other techniques people use to guess who’s viewing them on Facebook:
- Use the View As tool to compare what your profile looks like to you vs a friend. If info like your workplace or relationship status is visible to “Public”, a friend may be able to see updates that tipped them off to view your profile.
- Think about who you’ve been interacting with more lately on Facebook. Engaging with someone’s posts or commenting on photos may have made them curious to view your profile.
- Consider friends who have recently changed relationship status or switched jobs – they may be looking to reconnect with old contacts like yourself.
- Think about people you know who live in the same city as you. Local connections often trigger profile views and friend suggestions.
While you can’t know for sure who is looking at your profile, paying attention to the patterns above can give you some clues. If you notice one person consistently popping up in your People You May Know after certain interactions, they probably took a peek at your profile!
Can You View a Private Profile?
What if someone has a private Facebook profile? Can other people still see it? The short answer is no. If a profile is private, only confirmed friends will be able to access and view the profile. Here are more details on how Facebook private profiles work:
- Private profiles only display a default avatar and limited info such as name and gender. The rest of the profile is hidden.
- Private profiles do not show up in public search results on Facebook.
- Someone who is not friends with a private profile can still send a friend request, but will not be able to view any info until confirmed as a friend.
- Friends of friends cannot browse or access a private profile unless they are directly connected as friends.
So having a private Facebook profile enables you to tightly limit who can view and access your info and activity on Facebook. It blocks curious acquaintances or random strangers from snooping on your profile.
Going Private to Avoid Profile Views
For this reason, some people choose to have private profiles specifically to prevent unwanted profile views. Here are some examples:
- Celebrities and public figures go private to control access and limit distractions.
- Teachers and other professionals switch to private to establish boundaries with students or clients.
- Some users go private after a breakup to prevent an ex from tracking them.
- Individuals in jobs like law enforcement go private for security reasons.
In these cases, the ability to block casual profile views is seen as an advantage. But there are also downsides to locking down your profile:
- It can be harder to reconnect with old friends without a public profile.
- Upcoming events and status updates will only reach confirmed friends.
- Professional networking opportunities can be limited if your profile is not public.
So going private involves a trade-off. It provides more control over profile access, but also limits your reach and connectivity on Facebook to some degree.
How Private Profiles Affect Friend Suggestions
Having a private profile can also impact how Facebook’s friend recommendation algorithm works for you. Here are some implications:
- Friends of friends will not get suggested, since they can’t browse your private connections.
- Fewer recommendations may occur from recent profile views, since most non-friends can’t view your profile.
- More suggestions tend to come from groups or networks restricted to confirmed friends.
So while private profiles reduce unwanted friend recommendations in some ways, they also limit potentially welcome suggestions in other ways. You miss out on re-connecting with old classmates, coworkers, or other loose ties through the algorithm.
Tips for Managing Friend Suggestions
If you have a public profile and want more control over friend recommendations, here are some tips:
- Restrict old friends lists – This prevents friends from your past from getting suggested if you’d rather not reconnect.
- Decline unwanted suggestions – Saying “no” to some People You May Know signals Facebook to adjust the algorithm.
- Keep things professional – Having an employment-focused profile tends to limit personal friend suggestions.
You can also turn off friend recommendations in your Facebook settings. But for many people the benefits of the suggestions outweigh the minor privacy concerns.
The Pros and Cons of Profile Views
Overall, profile views are inherent to how Facebook is designed as a social network. The ability to lookup and learn about people is what makes Facebook useful for connecting. But it does come with a degree of openness and lack of privacy. Here are some main pros and cons of Facebook’s approach to profile views:
Pros
- Helps people learn about new connections and re-connect with old ones.
- Allows discovery of shared interests, experiences and contacts.
- Fuels the friend suggestion algorithm to show you relevant people.
Cons
- Viewers can access info you may want to keep private.
- Some unwanted connections will inevitably get suggested.
- Profile views are not always reciprocated, causing imbalance.
Facebook relies on open profile access to foster engagement on its platform. But concerns over privacy and unwanted contact remain an issue for some users. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference and how cautious you want to be with your information and connections.
Conclusion
Facebook’s friend suggestion algorithm considers many signals, with profile views being one of them. If someone looks at your profile, they may get suggested as a friend soon after. Going private can block unwanted profile views, but also limits your connectivity. Ultimately there is a trade-off between the benefits of discovery and openness versus privacy and closedness inherent to Facebook’s social graph model.